Operator Name

Internal name of the operator. This must be unique across all the scene files you want to use this asset in, and is very difficult to change. You should use some kind of naming convention to ensure uniqueness.

The name must start with a letter, and can contain letters, numbers, and underscores (_).

Operator Label

The human-readable name of the operator, which appears in the Houdini user interface (including the tab menu . This should be relatively short (two to four words) but as descriptive as possible.

Operator Style

Allows you to choose an operator type.

Network Type

Allows you to choose which network your operator will be available. This drop-down list changes based on the Operator Style selection.

Save To Library

Location of the operator type library (HDA) file to save the new asset into.

While a single .hda file can contain multiple assets, in general you should save each digital asset in its own .hda file and name the .hda file after the asset’s internal name. This makes it easier to manage assets, libraries, and dependencies in a pipeline.

If you enter the word Embedded instead of a library name, the asset definition will be embedded in the scene file instead of saved into a .hda file.

Install Library To

After the digital asset’s definition is created it needs to be installed to be available in Houdini. This menu lets you choose the scope in which the library will be available:

  • For the current hip file only.

  • For you only (HOME).

  • For the current project (JOB).

  • Anywhere else in your HOUDINI_PATH.

(If you choose a directory in your path, the HDA is not copied to the specified location. Instead Houdini adds a reference to the HDA to the OPLibraries file there.)

Windows